The company behind this project is Verian who are leaders within the open source industry. They have created a shopping cart that is feature rich out of the box and Magento Commerce has become a leading shopping cart for open source e-commerce platforms. I recently reviewed Zen Cart writing about the Pros and Cons, and if you haven’t read the review, I would suggest taking a look at it to use it as a comparison.

An Overview Of Magento Commerce

As of the date of writing this review, I have tested Magento Commerce version 1.3.1. It is one of the latest and most powerful open-source e-commerce solutions that I have come across. These are some of the features you will find within the box:

Rather than give rewrite the benefits of Magento Commerce has about their software, you can read more and try out their demo on their website.

The Pros Of Magento Commerce

Clean And Modern Layout

The first thing that caught my eye was how professional and modern the default template looked. It was smooth and clean, which you will find across the board both on the front end and within the administration section.

Easy Integration Of Layouts, Themes And Add-ons

The beautiful thing I really like about Magento Commerce is how easy it is to install additional layouts and add-ons. In comparison to other open source e-commerce solutions such as OsCommerce and Zencart, it is less complicated and doesn’t require the shop owner to have prior programming experience. If you have used WordPress, which is a popular blogging tool you will find Magento’s shop structure is quite similar in that it is visually appealing and easy to use. I believe that Magento was aiming to create a simplistic yet powerful solution for e-commerce business owners.

More Than 50 Payment Gateways Are Available For Integration

I have heard that many store owners lose sales because they could not offer a certain payment solution for their customers, or they have to switch payment gateways because their e-commerce solution was not compatible with their existing provider. With Magento Commerce you can rest at ease whatever payment gateway you have, they most likely have it ready for you.

You Can Manage Multiple Stores From One Administration Panel And Product Catalog

This is a more advanced option available for businesses with multiple ecommerce stores. Say you had a camera shop and a book shop. In most cases you would have to setup two separate systems and log into them separately to manage the stores. With Magento Commerce you can set them up all within the one system and manage all your sales from one administration, still giving you the flexibility of two stores. It saves time and additional resources yet allowing you to monitor and track sales all within one place.

An Option To Up Sell At The Checkout

Having this option alone will increase your profits dramatically. Up selling, as I’ve discussed in a previous post is a powerful way to increase your profits from an existing customer by simply offering additional promotions or products. This can lead to more money for your e-commerce business and having it automated, you have a silent sales person making money for you.

Built-in Product Image Zoom Capability

Sometimes as a customer I am always wanting to see more finer details about a product. Unfortunately not all e-commerce sites have the ability to show more or allow you to zoom into the product. Magento Commerce now has that option built in and it allows you to upload a high resolution photo to let customers zoom into the product while they are browsing. Imagine how it will have an affect on your sales and increase your conversions!

These are just some of the pros I have found with Magento Commerce and I believe I could write a whole book on how good this software is.

The Cons Of Magento Commerce

Since Magento Commerce is still relatively new compared to other open source e-commerce platforms available in the market, it still has it’s initial bugs. Here are some issues it still faces:

Performance And Response Time Can Be Slow

Depending on the hosting server you use for Magento Commerce, you may experience slower page loads and response times with shared hosting providers. Magento Commerce, being content rich does require a lot of resources to run and the performance of your website will be dependent on the server you use. Therefore choosing a dedicated and powerful server is something you need to think through carefully, especially if you are doing hundreds of transactions a day. It does have numerous hosting providers they recommend and you can see Magento hosting partners.

Great For A New E-Commerce Business But Not So Good For Existing Businesses!

To date I have not found a solution or import utility that allows Magento Commerce to import data from other open source e-commerce systems such as OsCommerce, Zencart and Xcart. This poses a question for existing e-commerce businesses to consider whether or not to switch over to this system. If there was an add-on for importing, more businesses would switch over to Magento Commerce.

No Accounting Export Function For MYOB or Quicken

Another consideration is if you currently use MYOB or Quicken as your accounting package to track and monitor your financials, then you will want to make sure your e-commerce website can link to it. Otherwise you will need to hire someone to double entry your transactions to update your accounting software.
My Opinion

Overall, aside from a few downsides mentioned above, Magento Commerce has a great potential to be the leading open source e-commerce platform for all e-commerce businesses. I am a great supporter of software that is open source which allows the community to contribute, develop and evolve. Furthermore with strong support from Magento’s company – Verian they have a huge chance to succeed.

My rating for this software is 9 out of 10 and I would highly recommend it to new business owners to use.

[http://www.internetbusinesspath.com/] Tyrone Shum is an internet marketer helping you enhance your internet business through his weekly podcasts, tips and resources.

Social Commerce – The Evolution
Social commerce is different from traditional e-commerce, or more of an extension of e-commerce. Social commerce basically makes use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The method that is employed in this type of commerce is rather simple in its essence. Business owners or people who are related to sales use these sites to interact with the potential and existing customers. They make use of several techniques to encourage online selling of their product or service. To simplify the concept, one can say that when e-commerce is conducted using social media sites, it is termed as social commerce. But what differentiates social commerce from e-commerce is commerce through social media evolves from a relationship basis where e-commerce is more transactional.

Social Commerce = Opportunity
There is a growing trend among businesses to use social media for commerce to increase their sales. This is without doubt a great opportunity for businesses. The system of social commerce is based upon interaction. This gives a business much better chance of increasing sales because through these sites they are actually able to convey their message and motto to their customers.

The question that now arises is what is the point of social e-commerce? Using these sites a business can create a platform where potential customers can get advice from other people. There are many products and services that are for sale today and this very large variety can be a source of confusion for the customer who can’t decide whether to go for the product or not. Using social media, the business creates an environment where the existing customers serve as an important tool in convincing the potential customers to buy the product there and then.

Relationships Matter in Social Commerce
This is done through a series of product recommendation and building relationships though customer interaction, after all social media drives relationships which breeds trust which enable social commerce. Using sites like Facebook and Twitter the business sets up its product or service for reviews or ratings. Through this system it is able to generate feedback about its products and this in turn serves as ‘trusted’ advice to the new client. When the client sees that other people are making use of product/service and are benefiting from it, they are encouraged to buy the product. Since commerce through social media is an extension of e-commerce, the product can be bought online.

Facebook Commerce
When it comes to Facebook commerce or commerce through other sites, the product is sold using these sites. There is the facility of shopping carts available that allows the customer to buy the product there and then from the site without having to visit any other site. Facebook for instance uses Facebook Open Graph that allows the trade of goods to be carried on using Facebook. To help businesses, the site has also introduced tools such as I frames that allow businesses to learn more about their clients. Although the idea of social commerce is relatively new, there are many businesses that are currently making use of this service, and are benefiting from it. There are more firms that are taking up this concept and from the looks of it social commerce is going to get more developed as firms come to realize the fact that it has a lot of scope and potential.

Duncan Lauder is strategic marketing executive with 20 years of experience in promotional strategy, direct marketing and online initiatives.

He is the president and CEO of Marketing Practicality, LLC; a consultancy specializing in marketing strategy, internet marketing, social media, Facebook commerce and search engine optimization (SEO).

You might want to create a website of your own, with a common example being a business or e-commerce website. E-commerce stands for electronic commerce, and refers to Internet sites that buy or sell products or services directly, including both physical products and services and virtual products and services. Exchanging financial data is also an important part of e-commerce in the context of online payments. E-mail and mobile phones are also often involved with e-commerce.

E-commerce transactions tend to be either business to business or business to consumer. There are many common e-commerce applications. These include supply chain and logistics document automation, enterprise content management, group or collective buying, domestic and international payment systems, instant messaging, newsgroups and automated online assistants.

More on E-commerce

Other aspects of e-commerce include online banking, online shopping, online order tracking, online office suites, teleconferencing, online tickets and shopping cart software. Some aspects of e-commerce tend to be regulated by governments. These often include online advertising, commercial e-mails and consumer privacy.

E-commerce Distribution

Some e-commerce practitioners exist only over the Internet, with an e-commerce website and perhaps other websites but not physical storefront or location. There are also more traditional commercial entities with storefronts or physical locations that also have a web presence that include an e-commerce website both for direct sales and for drawing more business to physical storefronts.

Making E-commerce Websites

Professional web designers can create e-commerce sites, but amateurs and laymen can use such applications as website builder tools, website design software and e-commerce software to do so as well. The best e-commerce sites are often simple and efficient in design, and it is generally not difficult to plan, build, launch and maintain an e-commerce website given the appropriate tools.

E-commerce and E-business

E-commerce is a subset of e-business, which is business conducted more efficiently with the use of information technologies. Internally within a business this can mean customer relationship management, human resources management, content management, enterprise resource planning, document management systems and communications systems such as digital audio, voice mail, e-mail, web conferencing and digital work flows.

E-commerce businesses are becoming a reliable way to buy products online. Branding plays a direct role in improving chances of e-commerce business success. An increasing number of global customers are switching to e-commerce sites to purchase everything from groceries to apparel, and electronics to lifestyle products. The e-commerce industry has completely transformed the way in which consumers around the world access products and services. It has suddenly brought a world of options to the fingertips of end users. The future seems bright for the e-commerce industry, with major players branching out into newer product categories frequently (thus setting the standards for smaller brands).

For e-commerce businesses, things are going well enough, but the competition is also fierce. New e-commerce brands are launching every day and persistently trying to get a foothold online. When it comes to branding, e-commerce companies are leaving no stone unturned. In this scenario, it is vital that you build and implement a high quality branding strategy for your e-commerce business.

Branding Strategies For E-Commerce Businesses

By having a result-oriented, effective branding plan for your e-commerce business, you can stand out amongst your competitors. To achieve that, you must determine what makes your e-commerce business a unique player in the industry. Are you offering high quality products at the best available rates? Do you organize regular discounts and offers for your customers? Are you adding new product categories to meet more customer demands? What are the factors that would convince customers to choose your brand against others? E-commerce business owners must strive to highlight the unique selling points of their brand. Only then can an e-commerce brand be boldly promoted to larger audiences.

As an e-commerce brand, you have to be at the forefront when it comes to attracting product vendors as well as consumers to your e-store. Vendors would be interested in using your marketplace, if it has a strong brand that keeps providing value to customers. The number of sellers and customers you bring in to your network depends on the strength of your e-commerce brand, and how well it delivers on its promises. If you are intelligent in your branding, and consistent in your service quality, your e-commerce brand can achieve considerable success.

E-commerce branding, like all branding, is influencing the perception of your brand and its services, in the eyes of the customer. Effective e-commerce branding will make marketing easier, retain more customers, drive up loyalty, and create better potential value for steady, long-term success.

The way you must approach an e-commerce branding strategy is by highlighting some key points. With branding, you must uphold your business’s core mission, the problems you aim to solve for your customers, standards that it adheres to, and proof of the quality of services you provide. What are the factors involved in business branding and their importance?

E-Commerce Branding – Methods and Importance

1. Your Brand Image – A stellar, uniquely identifiable brand image helps customers attach value to your e-commerce brand’s personality. This includes various things such as logos, banners, taglines, marketing captions, social content etc., which should always represent your brand the best. This is quite important if you want to create value for potential customers and convert them into loyal customers. A good brand image goes a long way in retaining customers, by continually generating interest for your e-commerce brand’s offerings.

2. Customer Satisfaction – Customers are everything, when it comes to e-commerce or any other type of business. You can actually enhance customer experiences and drive up satisfaction (and loyalties). This is a big part of establishing your e-commerce brand. Put your best foot forward while marketing, deliver on your promises you make, and provide unmatched service and support to enhance your brand’s potential value. Remember that satisfied existing customers can and will bring in newer customers to your e-commerce business. Maintain your integrity and keep reinventing to bolster your brand’s chances of business success.

3. Find Your Unique Selling Proposition – As an e-commerce business owner you must determine the USP of your brand. This will help you brand and promote it better to larger groups of potential customers. Think about what sets you apart from dozens of competitors vying for true e-commerce glory. Is it your service quality or support? Is it the trust of your customers and your track record? Do you provide innovative offers, discounts and promotions on special occasions? Do you house the widest variety of rare products? You must determine why customers would choose your e-commerce site. What extra value can you offer to your potential customers that convince them to use your platform again and again? Find your USP and use it to strengthen your brand.

4. Utilize All Channels – Technological advances in the past decade demand that your e-commerce business maximizes its presence on all social, web-based and mobile platforms. More and more potential customers buy and sell through handheld devices, and almost all of them are on social websites. All your competitors are doing it, and so should you. It will help you make your brand easily accessible to larger audiences, which in turn will bring more conversions and significantly better revenues. Social and mobile should be the front and center of your branding strategy.

E-commerce sites can benefit from the above mentioned branding strategies. By using the concepts provide here, you can establish your e-commerce brand and take your business to the next level.

Introduction: M-Commerce, or mobile commerce, is a part of E-Commerce. M-Commerce basically means that use of wireless handheld devices for having the trade or we can simply say that M-Commerce is the wireless web technology i.e. the technology enabling users to access digital information from the internet using wireless mobile computing devices or simply wireless handheld devices. With the help of these wireless devices, we can buy and sell different products and services throughout the world whenever and wherever we want. These devices have abridged the distance between the consumers and suppliers. We can assume that M-Commerce is the child of E-Commerce with more technology.

M-Commerce is also known as next generation’s E-Commerce. Now, this statement clearly explains us the importance of M-Commerce and we get assured that M-Commerce is the blessing for everyone in this modern era where each and everyone needs fast and reliable access to internet round the clock (24 by 7).

Following are the some main kinds of Wireless Handheld Devices that are helpful for M-Commerce:

1. Palmtops/Notebooks: The most common example is Sun Ray.

2. Smart Phones (WAP): The most common example is Nokia 8390.

3. GPRS enabled Cell Phones: The most common example is Nokia 6233.

4. Video Game Consoles: The most common example is MS Xbox.

5. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): The most common example is Palm i705.

6. Wireless E-Mail Handheld Devices: The most common example is BlackBerry.

7. TV Internet Receivers: The most common example is MSNTV.

*(Beside these, there are number of other wireless handheld devices too, but these are the ones that are commonly used.)

Basically, M-Commerce is the part of E-Commerce but E-Commerce is limited only in those areas where we have internet connectivity. But M-Commerce, as we can see from its name, can be used anywhere. These wireless handheld devices can be connected to the internet through satellite and other means anywhere and at anytime. As it is stated that M-Commerce is mostly connected through the satellite, we can, therefore, also have video and audio conferencing by the help of the devices used for the M-Commerce. In E-Commerce, we too can have video and audio conferences but unlike that of M-Commerce, we do need to have the internet connectivity, which is not possible everywhere. This means that if we are at a place where we do not have access to the internet, so we can not do anything. M-Commerce has become blessing for the people in many ways. As content delivery over wireless devices becomes faster, reliable, more secure, and scalable, there is wide speculation that M-Commerce will surpass wire line E-Commerce as the method of choice for digital commerce transactions. Both Business to Business (B 2 B) and Business to Consumer (B 2 C) E-Commerce transactions can take place using M-Commerce technology.

Some major challenges of M-Commerce: Beside the fact that M-Commerce is a blessing for everyone in this generation, like all others things, there are some limitations and challenges to it as well. Although, these challenges and limitations can easily be changed into blessings, but still these are limitations for many of its users. These challenges are mentioned below:

1. The keyboards and screens are tiny and awkward for a new user to use. In fact, only a part of the screen is visible at a time on these devices.

3. Each second waiting for data to download costs the customer money. Therefore, it is too much expensive to use.

4. Most wireless handheld devices have limited memory and power supply i.e. the memory is only extendable to a small extent while these devices are mostly used on battery which may need to be charged quite often.

These limitations and challenges may become a disgrace to the user but still these can not be avoided in any case and the user has to bare these any how.

Some Major Differences between E-Commerce & M-Commerce:

1. M-Commerce keeps us in touch with the world wirelessly by the help of satellites no matter where ever we are but E-Commerce usually does not do that. It normally needs to be connected to internet by the help of wires.

2. M-Commerce is always reliable and easy to access as compared to E-Commerce.

3. Wireless Handheld devices are easy to carry anywhere because of very low weight.

Conclusion: We can finally conclude that M-Commerce is basically a blessing for everyone. No matter, it too has some limitations and challenges, one can not deny from the importance of M-Commerce that has abridged the gaps between everyone especially for the trade and business.

I am the student of Institute of Business Administration(IBA), Karachi, Pakistan. I am currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. I never wanted to pursue a carrier in CS but we are often in a situation where we have to do something we never want to do. This same happened with me and i have got stuck in this field. Although, I am facing many problems initially, I can now only cross out my fingers and hope for the best till i clear I succeed in this. Well, I am not a regular writer but I just wrote this article to be submitted as an assignment.

Recognize it! You’re busy! And so must be! That’s what life is like! But you want more than that, you want to do more for yourself and massage can help. Because massage makes more than a simple relaxation of the mind and body. It keeps your body in shape and gives you enough energy to make you enjoy a longer life better than you do it today.

Massage releases stress. At the moment, stress is a universal evil. Every time you are late, every time you avoid a car in traffic, every time you have trouble working, stress is doing his job. Each time adrenaline increases heart rate and cortisone levels and organs respond to the measure. You will be in a state of nerves and constant agitation.
When there is no release of stress, serious problems such as an upset stomach, hypertension, sleep disturbances, chest pain, or existing illness may worsen.

Some of the changes that may occur are: Anxiety, lack of concentration, depression, permanent fatigue, muscle or bone pain, sexual dysfunction, excessive sleep or insomnia

All these stress-related problems can be diminished and some can be totally eliminated by massage. The researchers concluded that a massage session can lower heart rate and blood pressure, relax your muscles and increase endorphin production. The massage also releases serotonin and dopamine and the result is a general relaxation, both physical and mental.
Our body care must be at the top of the priorities.
By adding the massage to your routine you will look much better and you will be much healthier and relaxed. Massage can improve your vitality and mood. Massage can prepare for a long and beautiful life.

Our masseuses personalize each massage session according to the needs of the individual.
Our massage parlors offer a variety of relaxation styles and techniques to help you. Apart from relaxing, massage can be a powerful ally in reducing pain, increasing energy levels, improving mental and physical performance

After a massage session, you will see how the mental prospects are enriched, the body allows easier handling, better pressure resistance, relaxation and mental alertness, calm and creative thinking.
When you have the impression or force yourself to stay straight, your body is not actually aligned properly. Not only does the posture look bad, but it forces some of the muscles to go muddy all day, while others become weaker. After a long time, the incorrect position may cause other drops. For example, internal organs press on what affects digestion, breathing ability is also diminished, which means that much less blood and oxygen reaches the brain and hence all sorts of other complications.

Massage allows you to return your body to the track. Allowing the body to make healthy and accurate movements is one of the greatest benefits of massage. Massage can relax and restore muscles injured by bad posture, allowing the body to position itself in a natural, painless position.
Apart from posture, there is also anxiety. One of the signs of anxiety and stress can also be heavy breathing. When the body begins to breathe too little and deeply instead of breathing at a natural rithm, it is impossible for one to relax. One reason may also be that the chest muscles and the abdomen get tightened and the air gets harder.

Massage plays an important role in learning the body how to relax and how to improve breathing. Respiratory problems such as allergies, sinuses, asthma or bronchitis are a group of conditions that can benefit from massage. In fact, massage can have a positive impact on respiratory function.

Many of the muscles in the front and back of the upper part of the body are breathing accessory. When these muscles are tight and shorten they can block normal breathing and interrupt effective breathing natural rithm. Massage techniques for stretching and relaxing these muscles improves breathing function and breathability. Massage leads to an opening of the chest as well as structural alignment and nerve dilatation that are required for optimal pulmonary function. A good way to treat respiratory problems with massage is the taping made in Swedish massage. When done on the back, along with vibrations, it can detach the mucus from the lungs and can clean the airways for better later function.

Massage not only relaxes muscles, but helps people become aware of daily stress levels. Once the body recognizes what really means relaxation, the mind can rest easily relax before the stress becomes cornice and harmful. This will help you enjoy a balanced life. Massage controls breathing, allows the mind to re-create relaxation before the occurrence of chronic and harmful stress and increases the level of energy.